Monday, May 05, 2008

Get Gmapified with these great Google Maps mashups!

I enjoy finding people who have a true passion for the Google Maps API. As always Google Maps Mania is as much about the people as it is the mashups so I'd like to introduce you to "Olbibigo" of Paris, France. Olbibigo (as he has asked to be called) is a software engineer-team leader and is one of those people with a passion for the Maps API and geo as a whole. I stumbled across a mashup created by him and blogged it on a links roundup post back in January. He had done a nice Google Maps + Kayak mashup called Mapified Kayak which is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com. Shortly after the post Olbibigo dropped me a line to inform me of 6 of his other Google Maps projects, which has since grown to 13.. I was amazed when I checked out his great, full featured and very useful mashups and decided they collectively demanded their own post.

Here are Olbibigo's Google Maps mashup creations.. Trust me here, looking through these and checking out the great UI and overall application for each of them is time well spent:

Mapified Kayak - As mentioned above, this is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com

ParisParis - A self-described "social mashup" that helps people in Paris find just about anything by adding/removing layers! Check out the awesome info-window/bubbles atop the very unique map markers.. There is even an API that is provided for this as a web service!

Where are Trains - French rail mashup that lets you trace in real-time every TGV (french high speed trains) departing from and arriving to Paris. Olbibigo has built a tutorial to let you "add your own flavour to it". Be sure to check between 7.00am-23.30pm Paris time.

My Korea - This mashup instantly fills the Korean Google Maps mashup void. My Korea will help you to map and learn about Korean cities, transportation, parks, World Heritage Sites. Olbibigo even lets you explore Korea's past by overlaying a map from 1745 and its present by showing the places he has visited!

Overflown Countries - Add a start and end point for a long haul trip and learn all the countries your flight will pass over.. What an awesome tool!

RoadTrip in the USA and elsewhere - Similar to Overflown Countries this tool will work the same for road trips. Click a start and end point within the US, Canada or France and this tool calculates Google Maps directions, elevation and specific state, province and counties. Click "Animate" to watch a car trace the route right on the map. Nice work!

"Template" - Olbibigo's template that you can use as a starting point to build your own Google Maps mashup. From the page: "..To get all needed files, you can use the "Save as complete page" function of your current browser. You should get 6 files (with ".htm", ".js", ".css" and ".png" extension)."

I Need a Bike - A bicycle rental mashup for companies and several cities throughout France: Vélib' in Paris, Vélo'v in Lyon and Le Vélo in Marseille (Fr). There is an insane amount of information that is on offer here in a beautifully designed UI

Mapified RSS - This is a cool geo tool that lets you paste in an RSS feed URL to instantly map the locations of the posts/news articles.

Keep a close eye on the page I've pulled these links from as Olbibigo creates more Google Maps tools and mashups.. You'll enjoy a special section at the bottom of the page: "The 5 most impressive and/or useful Google Maps mashups I've ever seen ... until now".

Well done! Keep the the great mashups coming Olbibigo! :)____________________